How to Make an Original Character
by The Nihilarian
Summary: How to make a good OC, if you are aspiring to write an OC fic. There will be more, I assure you! I'm just writing down ideas I had in my head.
1. Chapter One

How to Make an Original Character

Hello, fair citizens of ! I am here today to address something that has been bothering me for a while, and I'm sure it bothers you, too.

_Original Characters._

There, see, even the words look ominous. There is just a certain deathly vibe that comes from those two words together that makes all fanfiction writers shiver in their seats. I am going to try and help remedy this by introducing a foolproof way to make a good, interesting, _deep_ original character while having fun! (Hopefully. I think making original characters is fun.)

First of all, we need to discuss appearance.

I have read many OC fics in my day, and many of them include a character that is laughably beautiful (seriously, it doesn't even happen in real life).

No. Please, do _not_ make your characters super fantastically beautiful. Characters are not supposed to be what you want to look like projected into a fic. Characters are supposed to be entirely new people. People who make you embarrassed for them, people who make you want to yell at them because they're so _stupid_, characters that are funny and lovely in their own little way.

Characters that are just overly beautiful just kill everything. I shall write an example of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in terms of original character beauty.

NOT ACCEPTABLE APPEARANCE

"_[Name]-san!" [Character from fandom] called loudly, running up to her. "I'm so glad I caught you!"_

_[Name] turned around, purple eyes practically glowing. Her long, silky black hair swished over her shoulders as she turned around to greet [character]. _

"_Hello, [character]-san," [Name] purred, running a delicate hand through her shimmering ebony hair._

NO. Okay, I'm sorry, I know that some real life people actually are really beautiful, but not to this extent! They are not so beautiful that you must mention it in every sentence! Please, do _not_ do this. ;_;

Also, if you are in Japan, please take note of the common eye colors and hair color. They are usually dark, with a few exceptions if they are a Japanese/what-have-you mix. Nobody in Japan is going to have purple eyes.

And besides, purple eyes naturally occur mainly in albinos. Albinos lack melanin in their skin, making it difficult to protect their skin against the sun's rays. This means that they will normally sport sunburns, so their skin will be rather damaged. They won't have perfect skin because of forgetting to put on the correct amount of sunscreen/not covering up properly/etc.

Now that I have covered unacceptable beauty, it's time to move on.

ACCEPTABLE APPEARANCE

"_[Name]-san!" [Character] called loudly, running up to her. "I'm so glad I caught you!" _

_[Name] turned around, grinning widely and showing off all her rainbow braces. Her dark brown eyes were almost closed from the sheer force of her grin, making her look like the Cheshire cat._

"_Hi, [character]-san!" [Name] lisped excitedly, brushing a strand of her dark hair behind her ear._

In this passage, I remarked upon this character's appearance, but I didn't make her overly beautiful as I did in the last passage. I gave her rainbow braces! And with braces, as I'm sure some of you have noticed, comes a bit of a lisp. I included that in my story because my character is a _person,_ just like everyone else! She has the same issues with her braces and she doesn't have super awesome _purple eyes KAWAII DESU_

Because she's a person, not a doll.

Another thing I've noticed is that lots of characters are made out to be really super smart and don't seem to do anything wrong EVER because they are perfect little Einsteins!

They're so smart they spend hours studying, and they look hot while doing it! Hot damn!

NO, please don't do this. Your character needs to make mistakes. Please, have him/her make a mistake!

MISTAAAAAAAAAAAAKEEEEEEEE. I am the mistake zombie.

People make mistakes! It's okay to admit it, because everyone's made a mistake whether they like it or not. Me, for example. One day, I had spent the entire night studying to spite my mom because she was mad at me for receiving a B- on one of my tests. I was so fucking tired, I accidentally put my underwear on backwards and walked around the whole day like that.

I'm actually giggling remembering this.

Anyways, here are some examples of acceptable/not acceptable ways to write super-smart people!

NOT ACCEPTABLE

_[Name] entered the classroom, carrying her backpack over one of her shoulders, her lithe figure looking small in comparison to the big thing. She carried it effortlessly, striking some of the students in her classroom dumb._

"_[Name]!" [Character] whispered to her from behind. She turned around, and smiled happily, showing off her pearly white teeth. "Did you study for the test?"_

"_Oh, [character]-san, of course I did!" [Name] whispered back, still smiling. "I always study for tests! I spent the entire day yesterday and went to sleep at four in the morning today because I was studying."_

"_What? But you didn't need to study!" [Character] pouted. [Name] laughed, her eyes twinkling._

Notice how there were absolutely no remarks from the character on her appearance. Well, in this case, there should be! She was up practically all night studying! She should have bags under her eyes, she should have pasty skin, she should smell bad, her hair should be tangled, _something!_

Studying is hard! Please make it show!

ACCEPTABLE

_[Name] entered the classroom looking like she'd been run over by a truck. Her short, boyish hair stuck out in all directions, and her shirt was buttoned completely wrong. (How did she button the bottom button to the top?) She meandered over to her seat, her back hunching over from the weight of her backpack. [Name] sat down heavily and released a long-suffering sigh._

"_[Name]!" [Character] whispered to her from behind. [Name] grunted, then lifted her head off the table marginally, her eyes puffy and swollen. "Did you study for the test?"_

"_What the fuck does it look like," [Name] grouched back, cranky from lack of sleep. [Character] winced at her tone. "I stayed up until four in the goddamn morning studying my ass off."_

"_What? But you didn't need to study!" [Character] pouted. [Name] groaned, and allowed her head to fall heavily on the table._

In here, my character looks like shit. Her hair's probably not been brushed, her shirt is weird, she's slouching, she's grouchy as fuck… These are all normal things! These are things that happen whenever you stay up late and study! You don't look hot after studying the entire day, you look like crap! Especially if you're cramming.

And notice how I made [Name] offend the character! (Just a teensy bit.) Her tone made them wince!

A person will be offended/hurt if someone says "What the fuck does it look like" to them. It'll make them feel stupid! So freaking _show_ that in your fanfiction! BLARFGSGDFN

Okay, that's all I can think of for now, but please review and… Maybe I'll make more! Because I'm sure there are more ways to make a character awful.


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Hello, all! I have returned from the land of the living! That is to say, I have returned from the mythical land of real life. And I will, again, be talking about more Mary Sues/Gary Stus.

So let's get this show on the road!

Okay, so, another problem with Mary Sues is their ability to do anything without even trying. They're super good at everything they touch, and they're really fast learners and they're super humble about it and yada yada yada.

Okay, while I'll admit that some people have a penchant for certain things, and can do them relatively easily on their first few tries, they have a limited range of what they have a penchant for. That is to say, _people are good at a few, specific things, and that is all._ They are not good at everything! If we were good at everything, we'd be robots. Or maybe Legolas from Lord of the Rings. But that is beside the point!

You cannot make people good at everything in your story if you want your story to be believable. If you want to write a story with a character that's magically good at everything, fine. Just keep it to yourself. Or, if you decide to post it somewhere, don't be upset when you get flamed, because people on and people in the real world do not appreciate your character being amazing at everything. It makes everyone look bad.

You have to make your character _work_ for something they want to be good at. If they are good at fighting when you introduce them, they have to have some background at practicing fighting relentlessly for years, because people don't just master fighting in a year.

If you want your character able to handle a sword with ease, they have to practice for hours and hours, for years and years. Swords are heavy! They're made of metal! You can't just pick it up and expect to be an expert. That is a foolish attitude. You need to learn, and you need to learn from someone experienced, or else you'll probably learn to do it _wrong._

I can't really give examples of this, because the acceptable version of being good at something would probably be really long, and I don't want to bore you all with it! (It takes a long time to explain casually and with a good pace how your character came to be an expert swordsman/fighter/hitman.) So, I will move on to the next point.

I am going to use an example from the Katekyo Hitman Reborn! fandom for this, because this is where I see it the most.

I see that people make this OC where they are loud, annoying, and call Kyoya Kyo-chan and glomp him a lot without getting bitten to death or something silly like that, and then the infamous Namimori disciplinarian falls in love with them.

I see… Some problems with this. First of all, Kyoya is a huge dick. (We love him anyway.) He does not tolerate anyone's shit, and he definitely won't tolerate shit like this OC is spewing at him. He'd probably murder her and leave her body for the crows.

Second, Hibari despises loud people! I don't know where you got the idea that he'd be happy with an extraordinarily loud partner, unless she could defeat him in a fight (which is unlikely), but he'd probably bonk this character on the head a couple of times and hope that she got brain damage. He doesn't like people to disturb him. He's like a big, grouchy, black cat. He does whatever the fuck he wants. You don't own him. He owns you.

Third, why would he allow you to call him Kyo-chan? Why? He's not a girl. His name is not "Kyo". His name is Hibari Kyoya. And I'm relatively sure he'd like to be addressed as such. Or, at least, as respectfully as you can possibly manage.

Your character cannot act like this around Hibari Kyoya, and then expect to not get bitten to death. And besides, I'd imagine that Mr. Dickwad—I mean, Hibari would like to find someone who could fight, who was quiet and submissive, and someone who was, above all, traditional. Not some wonky girl that glomps him and shows excessive displays of affection.

The same goes for all those stereotypical dark, gloomy characters in manga/anime. They need you to respect them and their needs and space, not just invade it all the time and run around screaming your head off. Silly people!

Okay, that's all I have to say today. Ciao!


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Hello everyone! I have returned to the world of fanfiction bearing more information about Mary Sues, now that I have researched and read more OC works. And, let me tell you, many OCs were… Less than exemplary. Again, I will help you, my dear readers, with making an interesting and lovely character!

MARY SUE CHARACTERISTIC #1

One thing I noticed about OC works is that they tend to move at a really fast pace. In the case of an OC/character fic, both parties in the relationship tend to fall in love at an extremely fast rate.

I am here to tell you today that falling in love is not that simple! You cannot fall in love with a person within a few days. Sure, you can fall in _lust_ with someone—that is to say, you can find yourself attracted to his or her physique, or the _idea_ of him or her. But it is simply not possible to fall in love with the _person_ within a few days, because you hardly know them. Love takes a long time! In some cases, it can take years to realize that you love/loved someone, and sometimes, it's too late to tell them that. (Which really sucks.)

This also happens in friendships in OC fics. The OC tends to make friends with all the characters really quickly! And then they stay friends! WOW MAGIC.

No. Friendships also take time. You can be acquainted with someone within a few days. You can be those people who greet each other in the hallways politely while on your way to the next class. But friendship is very gradual. It takes a while for people to become completely comfortable with another person. We have to make sure the other person isn't some crazy killer dude!

A WAY TO REMEDY THIS

There is only one way to remedy this: _make your story multi-chaptered._ You absolutely need to see development in a character in order for it to be believable and, yes, likable!

I mean, you don't have to make it, like, thirty chapters before the character makes their first friend, but seriously, a few chapters would suffice. The characters (meaning the original character and another character, or the original character and a character from an anime/manga/TV show/movie) need to become acquaintances, then they need to become more comfortable with each other and share their interests, and then they need to do embarrassing stuff that ends up being an inside joke and irritating the fuck out of other characters. (Fucking inside jokes, they are so annoying—unless it's between yourself and someone else. Then it's totally okay.)

MARY SUE CHARACTERISTIC #2

Another thing I noticed in OC fics is that everyone makes their OC have a tragic past, and then have them smile a lot to disguise it. One main tragic past is violent abuse by one or both parents.

I find this sort of insulting, actually, because people with _actual, tragic backgrounds_ do **not**__smile and try to preserve other people. Many people with depressing stories _act_ like they have depressing stories. If someone says something that is offensive to them because they are touching on their past, then they will normally react strongly. Many people I've known who have gone through such struggles have either started crying or blowing up in the offender's face. (Luckily, I was never the offender.) In either case, it's relatively shocking to the people around them.

If you want to make your character have an abusive father/mother, fine, but just know that smiling is out of the deal. Many victims abuse _do_ cover it up, that's true, but they will not smile about it.

According to an article I read, these are some signs and behavioral patterns of child abuse:

"All types of child abuse and neglect leave lasting scars. Some of these scars might be physical, but emotional scarring has long lasting effects throughout life, damaging a child's sense of self, ability to have healthy relationships, and ability to function at home, at work and at school. Some effects include:

**Lack of trust and relationship difficulties.** If you can't trust your parents, who can you trust? Abuse by a primary caregiver damages the most fundamental relationship as a child—that you will safely, reliably get your physical and emotional needs met by the person who is responsible for your care. Without this base, it is very difficult to learn to trust people or know who is trustworthy. This can lead to difficulty maintaining relationships due to fear of being controlled or abused. It can also lead to unhealthy relationships because the adult doesn't know what a good relationship is.

**Core feelings of being "worthless" or "damaged." **If you've been told over and over again as a child that you are stupid or no good, it is very difficult to overcome these core feelings. You may experience them as reality. Adults may not strive for more education, or settle for a job that may not pay enough, because they don't believe they can do it or are worth more.Sexual abuse survivors, with the stigma and shame surrounding the abuse, often especially struggle with a feeling of being damaged.

**Trouble regulating emotions.** Abused children cannot express emotions safely. As a result, the emotions get stuffed down, coming out in unexpected ways. Adult survivors of child abuse can struggle with unexplained anxiety, depression, or anger. They may turn to alcohol or drugs to numb out the painful feelings."

This means that the character will be withdrawn, moody, and will not actively seek out help. Please do not insult the people who have actually gone through child abuse by making your OC act stupidly. Please, please do your research first. I really dislike how many people seem to think that it's cool to make their OCs martyrs and victims, especially if they don't have knowledge about how people react to things like this. It is really, really horrible.

A WAY TO REMEDY THIS

**Do your research.**__I cannot stress how important researching things are. If you have any doubts about _anything_ in your writing, then research it. It doesn't matter if it makes you feel stupid—if someone calls you out on it, then you'll feel even stupider. Don't make yourself look like an idiot on the Internet, because people are absolutely _ruthless_ here.  
So please, save us all some time and just do your research.

MARY SUE CHARACTERISTIC #3

The last thing I noticed is the lack of fights between OCs and characters in an anime/manga/TV show/etc.

People fight! It's okay, everyone does it. Everyone has different views on different things, and it's okay for people to debate about these things and maybe even get into a heated argument about their opinions. Sure, both parties may feel guilty afterwards, and maybe even a little hurt, but seriously, it's life.

In fanfiction, I noticed that either the OC agreed with everything a character said and was almost like a disciple, or that _everyone_ agreed with the OC and _everyone_ was his or her disciple. Seriously, there are going to be conflicting views with people. Granted, you may have lots of the same ideas about things, but that doesn't mean that you're going to have the same views on _everything!_ Change it up a little! Life is meant for living, not just agreeing mindlessly with everything! That's what we have dogs for!

A WAY TO REMEDY THIS

Make your character have an argument with another. Even if it's an argument that is completely embarrassing and stupid, it will make your character look much more believable and tangible. If you make your OC's argument convincing enough, you may give your readers something to think about, which is something that everyone wants to do.

Everyone who writes wants to give his or her readers something to think about. Sharing ideas and giving opinions is a way of getting members of our species to be more mindful about things.

So just make your character and a character of anyone's anime/manga/etc. have an argument. A healthy spat is something that everyone needs. It gets everything off your chest, and that makes you feel super awesome, let me tell you.

Author's Note: I am extremely sorry for talking about child abuse, but I seriously cannot stand when fanfiction writers completely disregard peoples' reactions to this sort of horrible thing. I do not condone or agree with child abuse, and I do not usually talk about it, but it is definitely something that needs to be addressed.

I hope that none of my writing in this piece offends you, or triggers you, because that is literally the shittiest thing to do ever, and I would really like you to talk to me about it privately if you feel offended or depressed about my topic.

You may PM me your concerns if you don't feel comfortable reviewing.

Also, you have my permission to PM me if you are triggered by this, or are going through something like this, or just need someone to talk to. I will do my best to be there for you and offer advice to you.


	4. Chapter Four

**AN: **Hello, my lovelies! I know I promised you a fourth chapter within the week, but as soon as I wrote that down, I had so much stuff to do. It was insane. However, I am back now, so, I will try and make more chapters! Hope you enjoy the new one.

Chapter Four

Hello, everyone! I am back from the realm of the living with more news on OCs and how not to make a Mary Sue/Gary Stu.

There are several things I noticed, once again, so I will proceed to outlining them in detail.

**MARY SUE CHARACTERISTIC #1: Contradicting Descriptions**

Something I noticed a lot of in OC writing was the sheer amount of character paradoxes. It was absolutely insane, not to mention annoying. You must make sure to completely have a visual of your character inside your head as you begin writing. You can't have half a picture, and then go and change things around. No, no, no. If you're going to do that, then you have to explain how the hell that happened, because it sure as hell doesn't happen naturally.

For example, a lot of contradicting descriptions center around female characters in fiction. To narrow it down, it mostly ensnares the weapon-wielding females.

Let me say this once: Weapon-wielding chicks are great. You should use them, and make more of them, and use all sorts of weapons with them. That isn't the problem here.

The problem is that people have no idea how much muscle strain and strength it takes to wield, for example, a broadsword.

I see so many people giving their lovely ladies a broadsword, even though the character has small, dainty hands that aren't calloused _at all_ despite "many hours of working with the broadsword until she could wield it with perfection!"

No. Have you ever seen a broadsword? Those things are freaking _heavy._ At most, they can weigh up to _forty pounds._ That is a lot to carry around, especially if you are swinging it with one hand!

If you want your character to have a broadsword so desperately, fine, but you cannot make them dainty while they are in the possession of such a thing. They need to be pretty buff; your character needs to be able to hold something that could weigh up to forty pounds with one hand at a time and swing it around with precision. They also need to have callouses, because the leather/thing around the bottom will chafe your hands. They also need to have lots of scars and bruises, because people who practice with swords will get hurt.

If you want to keep your character dainty, I suggest doing research on swords. I would recommend a rapier, if you want a sword for your girl character, or even a dagger. Daggers can be thrown and shoved in someone's side with a considerable amount of ease. It doesn't take a genius (or a body builder) to wield them, either.

Also, if you're putting your character in a modern-day setting, why would they use a sword? Seriously, the character will be at a _huge_ disadvantage if they ever come into battle with someone else. Especially someone with, I don't know, A GUN? Technology has improved, however, Mary Sue creators' romantic idealisms have not. Unfortunately for us all.

**MARY SUE CHARACTERISTIC #2:** **Lack of Variety Among Characters/OCs**

In many stories I read that are in modern-day setting, there is a depressing lack of characters with different ethnicities/facial structures/the like. In this day and age, everyone is supposed to be treated equally and nicely.

However, in many works I read, every character was either blonde or a redhead, had pale skin, no freckles or blemishes, was tall, was skinny, and was just overall sort of irritating. (This ties back into something I mentioned in a previous chapter, I think.)

Your character needs to be interesting and different. You need to make your characters diverse mentally and physically.

If you have trouble with this, I would recommend going on the internet and searching up photos of people, and seeing how much each face differs, how each body type differs. Then, find ways to describe these differences and try and incorporate these differences into your characters.

Of course, it's fine to have a blond character. It's fine to have a redhead. However, you need to take into account the fact that not every one of your characters should look the same. Even siblings look pretty different. For example, I have darker skin than both my sisters, I have larger eyes (and I'm slightly cross-eyed, ha…), and I have thicker hair. They have thin, long hair, and lighter skin.

There are lots of differences among two people, and authors should do their best to point them out.

**MARY SUE CHARACTERISTIC #3:** **Lack of Background Knowledge**

I read so many fanfictions with characters that have interesting heritages, but no author ever expands on it. Or, if the author does decide to take initiative and describe their heritage, it's completely awful and it's sort of hilarious.

If you're going to have someone who has a very interesting heritage, then you need to do your research and make sure you're getting everything right. Don't take information from just one site. Make sure you corroborate your information, and check your facts accordingly.

I know it's tedious and it's probably hard work, but it makes your story so much better in the end. If you just half-ass your research, you'll just end up getting humiliated. And, I don't know about you, but I absolutely loathe public humiliation. (This is my introvert speaking.)

From my experience with writing characters of different heritages, I find it easy to write my notes in a small journal. Something that can fit in my pocket easily. I write in sentence fragments, and then I expand on them later when I'm actually writing the story. It's an easy way to incorporate important facts about your chosen heritage and background into your writing.

That's all I have for today, folks. Arrivederci, amicos! Happy writing, and I hope you enjoyed this new chapter. Please leave a review, if you could spare the time. I'll love you forever.


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Helpful Resources/Tips for Writing

**RESOURCES**

There are many resources online if you do a bit of sifting through the internet, but I am going to compile a nice list for people who don't want to do this sort of thing, since it is generally time consuming. Many of these sites are very clean and orderly and fairly straightforward, so I probably won't explain too much about them.

Websites

1. "102 Resources for Fiction Writing": www. Heretocreate 2007 / 11 / 01 / resources-for-fiction-writing /#character

This is an _amazing_ website that I use often! It gives you an entire list of websites/links to awesome pages that will definitely help you with your writing. I would suggest using this for OCs and fan OCs.

2. "The Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test": www . springhole writing / marysue . htm

This is also a pretty cool website. It's basically a quiz (it's long, beware) that asks you various questions about your OC. It goes in depth and asks very critical questions that are crucial for creating truly original and not annoying characters. It can be used for original fiction as well as fanfiction and RPG characters. I have used it for many of my characters.

3. "Serendipity": nine . frenchboys . net

This is a nice website that is basically a random generator if you're having trouble coming up with names. It has lots of generators, as well—it includes stronghold generators, city name generators, Japanese name generators, etc. I really recommend it if you're worried about having a Mary Sue-ish names!

Blogs

1. Miss Turdle's blog: missturdle . tumblr . com

This lovely person has a _lot_ of references and critiques that can help you create characters. She is very critical and is generally a very helpful person. Ask her questions if you have any! She also has a nice tag, called the "so you want to write a fantasy" tag. To get to this tag, if you aren't tumblr savvy, you have to use her blog url ( missturdle . tumblr . com) and then add /tagged/so+you+want+to+write+a+fantasy to the end of the .com.

I don't have any more blogs that I am aware of, but tumblr is generally a good place to start, once you sift through the idiots. (Trust me, there are a lot of them. But, for every idiot, there's also a really smart person! I would recommend creating a blog, since it is a very popular site and can get you great critiques.)

**TIPS FOR WRITING**

_When you're writing a character, think of how you personally would react to a person like this in real life._ If this character would annoy you, then wouldn't it make sense for people in your story to be irritated by someone like that? Go with your gut instinct!

_Make a character sheet first._ Then, you won't be constantly messing up the description of your character _in your own story._

_Have someone else look at your story._ Seriously, having a second eye critique your work before you post it will give you a _lot_ less flames on your work (if you even get any reviews at all).

_Make sure to use proper grammar in your summary and in your story._ Do you know how annoying it is to see "_ wuz rly cool! then she jmpuped into new wurld? wow amazing? review plss…." Seriously, I will never read that if that is in the summary. I am sorry.

_Don't put "Review please!" or "No flames!" or "This is my first fanfic!"._ See, the thing is, I don't really care whether this is your first fanfic or your 100th? I just want to read a good story.

_Develop your own style of writing._ Don't copy other people. Writing is an art, and it is one you perfect on your own, not by constantly glancing at other people.

_Have fun!_

* * *

_**AN: **So sorry for the late update! I really have no excuse. However, I have ended this story here, so there will be no more waiting on behalf of my little reviewers. ;~; I love you all!  
I ended it here for a couple of reasons. One, I honestly believe that I covered most of the things that annoy readers like me the most. Two, I believe the smaller things can be picked apart by you, the writer. :) I believe in you all! Three, writing is a very individual process. In order to perfect your style, I believe one must figure everything out by themselves. That's how most famous writers in the past have been! Introverted people tend to write amazing stories because of their ability to withdraw and completely observe everything. (That's not to say extroverts can't be brilliant writers! I'm just saying that this is a popular pattern that I have noted amongst my favorite/famous authors.)  
Au Revoir! I hope you enjoyed the story!_


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